


Silk and Steel

by MamaHen



Series: Memento Vivere [3]
Category: Persona 3
Genre: (Or don't because it's a very lonely level), Angst, Depression, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Medium Burn, Mental Health Issues, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Female Character, POV Male Character, POV Multiple, Rare Characters, Rare Pairings, References to Depression, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Think you've got a rarepair?, This is literally the first fic with this tag on ao3, Unreliable Narrator, get on my level
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2019-10-31 16:17:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17852963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaHen/pseuds/MamaHen
Summary: Kirijo-senpai had been adamant that the new girl had something unique to bring to the Student Council, but when Hidetoshi met her himself, he couldn't help but be dubious. A tiny half-American with too much energy and too little respect? Who could this girl really be? What made her so important?And why did it matter so much to him that he found out?





	1. Toshi-kun

Leaning forward in his chair, with his hands clasped in front of his mouth, Hidetoshi put on a very good picture of being engaged and attentive. As head of the Disciplinary Committee, he was expected to take all council matters seriously; his opinions, though often unpopular, were always taken into consideration. And yet, as discussions dragged on and on, spinning around in bickering little circles, he couldn’t keep himself from glancing over at the clock on the wall. Twenty minutes in, and there was still no sign of Minako, which probably meant she had chosen volleyball over student council. Again. It wouldn’t have bothered Hidetoshi so much if she hadn’t lied to his face about it in the hallway earlier. 

He was already beginning to think about how to word a letter to the president when the door slid open and the tiny redhead scurried through, apologizing as she crouch-jogged under the slide projected on the wall. It was a testament to the banality of the discussion that her entrance hardly even slowed down its momentum. Ryunosuke and Chiaki had devolved from conversing into a full-blown argument. Chihiro was trying to wrangle things in a productive direction, but it was clear to Hidetoshi that nothing of the sort would happen any time soon.

_ “It’s a stupid rule, and the teachers don’t even care about it until they’re looking for a reason to punish someone!” _

Finding her way to her seat, Minako slid into the chair next to Hidetoshi, dumping a hastily gathered pile of books and papers onto the desk in front of her. He could hear her mumbling to herself as she tried to sort through it all, smoothing out crumpled sheets and trying to brush dirt and grass off of her English textbook. Thankfully, he managed to keep his eyes from rolling, as he soon recognized her little voice whispering at _him_ instead.

“Sorry I’m late, Toshi-kun.” Minako was leaning sideways in her chair, getting closer to him so she wouldn’t have to speak as loudly to be heard. 

_ “Then, what, we just let students represent our school in sunglasses and swim trunks?!” _

“I told you to stop calling me that.” _Toshi-kun._ This girl was the subject of a significant number of schoolyard rumors, and more than her fair share of bathroom graffiti, and the excessive informality of her language when addressing her classmates played no small part in it. “My name is _Hide_ toshi. Use it.”

“Sorry.”

“And stop apologizing so much.”

“...sorry.”

Why did he even bother? “Shouldn’t you be saying this to the whole council? I’m not the only one here.”

“You’re the only one who notices when I’m gone.” Minako didn’t give Hidetoshi time to dwell on the implications of what she’d just said before she continued. “What did I miss?”

“Some of the students feel that the school uniform should be abolished, and they’re gathering supporters.” Hidetoshi nodded towards the arguing boys at the front of the room. They were calling each other names now. “Chiaki-kun is one of them.”

_ “Maybe if you’d stop shoving rulebooks up your self-righteous ass for five seconds, you could hear what people are actually trying to say!” _

“And there’s just no arguing with him, is there?”

“There is quite a lot of arguing going on right now, Minako-kun.”

Not showing him the same courtesy he had shown her, Minako openly rolled her eyes at Hidetoshi, though she did so with a smile. “I find that Chiaki-kun is remarkably difficult to dissuade from his opinions once he has decided on a position. Do you not agree, Hidetoshi-kun-san-sama-dono?”

“...” Again, Hidetoshi was left unsure of what to say next, though at least this time he had a chance to express his befuddlement. “Wha-”

_ “I don’t know why anyone would let a delinquent like you join the student council in the first place!” _

“Still think I’m gonna try anyways.” Minako slapped her cheeks, gave Hidetoshi a firm nod, and shot back out of her seat to physically interpose herself between the two arguing boys, a spring in her step the whole way.

\----------

“‘-and it is the opinion of the Student Council that the _de facto_ laxing of uniform policy already in place should also become the official policy. This will allow teachers and staff to address the concerns about uniforms, as well as ensuring that all students at Gekkoukan are treated fairly and held to the same standards.’ Is there anything else to add?”

Hidetoshi looked around the room, watching as Minako stood in front of the gathered council. There were still dissenting opinions; Chiaki in particular would not compromise on his position of complete removal. Even still, those opinions were being put forth properly, considered, debated, _voted_ on. It was, if not how things were supposed to be, at least much closer than they’d been an hour earlier.

“It’s settled then! Toshi-kun, do you think you can take this down to the faculty office?” Minako shoved the approved paper into Hidetoshi’s hands in the same motion that she used to slide past him so she could grab her bag and start putting her books away. “I promised I’d go to a thing with Junpei and I’m already running _super_ late. Great, thanks, sorry, bye!”

Hidetoshi looked down at the paper in his hands, reading over the soft, curvy letters and sharp,precise kanji, then back up out the door as Minako ran out and closed it behind her. He still didn’t quite get why the President had recommended her… but he was starting to get an idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd planned to start with a chapter about Rank 1, but it came out super dry. I might go back to it if I can think of a way to make it actually interesting to read.
> 
> Five nerd points to anyone who recognizes where the names of the student council came from.


	2. Dimmed Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minako's just too exhausted for volleyball practice, and hides out in the student council room while it's still dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little thing I hammered out when I was supposed to be studying, set between Ranks 2 and 3.

Minako was a coward. It had been a hard few nights, in the wake of the full moon. Her hands were still blistered from repeated use of a too-large polearm, she ached over every inch of her body, and the last thing she needed was volleyball practice making things even worse. It meant Rio would likely be left training alone, again, and that was all Minako’s fault. More than anything, she wanted to just go home and crawl into bed for a few centuries. But if she at least went to a council meeting, she’d have an excuse for later. Maybe she could just sleep at the desk, really hit the rock bottom of selfish bullshit.

The room was still dark when Minako slipped inside, and she was grateful that there was no one there yet, especially not Hidetoshi. No one else would care what she did, she was a completely disposable member of the council and they all thought she was an airheaded flake anyways, but that boy always held everyone, Minako included, to his own impeccable standards. Her performance, her attendance, her punctuality, he always had something to say to her. On most days, she appreciated it; it made her feel noticed and kept her accountable. Today, there was nothing she needed less.

So he was, of course, the first one to walk in, only a few moments after her, and casually flicked the lights on as he did. Minako whined and blocked her eyes with her arm to shield them from the sudden brightness, and by the time she’d adjusted, Hidetoshi had noticed her presence.

“Minako-kun,” He was staring directly at her as he spoke, and it made her feel very small. “Are you alright?”

 _Oh, hell._ Had she ever in her life been the first one there? Of course he noticed something was wrong, being here at all was an anomaly. Minako winced, more visibly than she meant to, at his question. It took her a moment to find her bearings again, build up the energy to become the Minako she was supposed to be. “Yep! Just twisted my ankle in practice again, so no questions about where I was coming today!”

It was a bald-faced lie, for several reasons, not least of which being that Minako had still managed to get there before Hidetoshi despite the supposed injury. Perhaps just as damning, however, was her all but admitting that she came to the meeting for the sole purpose of skipping practice. Minako could feel him judging her, but eventually he let it go, and she couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as he took his seat next to hers without comment. Of course, it meant she would still be under constant observation, but that was a given, and at least the meeting didn’t have to be any _more_ awkward and exhausting than it already would be.

The slack she was cut before motivating her to not try and take any more, Minako forced herself through the meeting without further incident. She asked pertinent questions, made a couple well-received comments, and generally participated as much as could be expected from her. By the end of the meeting, as afternoon was shifting to evening, the effort of it had exhausted her. One by one, the other members filed out, but Minako stayed seated, her head down on the desk against her arms. 

All she needed was to close her eyes for a second or two, and she’d be right back up to get home and jump into studying. They had a Tartarus run scheduled that she’d need to prep for, so she couldn’t spare long. Just a minute, two absolute max.

As Minako bargained with herself for larger and larger slivers of time, she could sense someone staring at her, the last other person in the room. She could feel their eyes on her, feel them judging her, but she didn’t have the energy to care. They heaved a sigh, and dimmed the lights on their way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rank 3 next time.


	3. A Bloody Nose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hidetoshi's getting a little overzealous in his search for whoever's been smoking in the boy's restroom, and Minako's there to see the consequences of it. 
> 
> A slight reimagining and expansion of the Rank 4 event.

With Hidetoshi’s hunt for the mysterious Bathroom Smoker in full swing, Minako was seeing less and less of him at Council meetings. Talk was starting to get around, gossip about the teacher’s pet in the Disciplinary Committee. Given the kinds of students he tended to focus his badgering suspicions on, there were even rumors that the teachers put him up to this directly, a way to punish any students taking advantage of the newly laxed uniform policy. After all, vicious and public accusations of being a cigarette-smoking delinquent would make just about anyone reconsider just how badly they really wanted to wear their new non-regulation jacket.

No matter what reservations she had, though, Minako knew she wasn’t in any real position to say anything. Hidetoshi was working hard, doing what he thought was best to make the school a better place, and all she ever did was sleep through meetings, skip them to play volleyball or, at best, say some vapid nonsense to try to keep people from fighting. (Which, might she add, hardly ever worked for more than a few minutes.) Whether or not she agreed with how he was doing it, at least he was doing _something_.

A chance meeting in the hallways changed her opinion a bit.

_”So where’s your **evidence** , smart guy?”_

Minako didn’t quite recognize the voice of the student yelling, maybe one of the seniors. He was arguing with someone, and she couldn’t quite tell who, but given the context, she could make an educated guess.

”There’s no need for evidence.” Hidetoshi proclaimed, his voice becoming much clearer as Minako approached the sound. _Called it._ “I know all about you. You were arrested for beating up a guy in the park who snitched on you, right?”

_”What?! The hell are you on about? I haven’t done anything wrong, and now you’re, what, accusing me of assault?!”_

“...well, then.” Minako knew that tone. Hidetoshi was changing tac, the closest he ever came to admitting he was wrong. “Let’s say it wasn’t you. You must know who it _was_ , then. All I need is a few names. You have my word as a member of the Discipli-”

He didn’t get through the rest of the sentence, and Minako turned the corner just in time to see why. The other student had pulled back his fist, and interrupted Hidetoshi’s little tirade by punching him straight in the nose. He stumbled a step back, then fell on his ass in a way that would have been hilarious if Minako wasn’t preoccupied with trying to get over to where they were. By the time she’d squeezed through the ring of onlookers, the other student was already gone, leaving Hidetoshi impotently yelling after him.

“Don’t think I’ll just let that go!” He was answered by a raised arm ending in a middle finger, but the conflict ended there as he turned his attention to Minako. She crouched next to where he had fallen, digging through her unbelievably messy bag for a little packet of tissues. “Minako-kun…”

“Toshi-kun.” Normally, they were reserved for crying emergencies, but this seemed like a good enough reason, and she invaded his personal space to wipe his nose before it dripped onto his uniform. It’d be hell to get the bloodstains out if she let it get that far. “Working hard?” There was a bit more sarcasm in her tone than she meant there to be, but he didn’t seem to notice, nodding enough that she accidentally smeared some of the blood across his cheek as his head moved.

“Of course. If we let people just get away with- ...what are you doing?” Minako licked her thumb, rubbing at his cheek with it and then with another tissue until she was satisfied that she’d gotten it all.

“Keeping you from bleeding on your uniform, obviously.”

“I mean what are you doing here? Council meeting shouldn’t be over yet, and I know volleyball practice runs for at least another hour.”

“I… came to look for you.” Minako responded, grabbing the first excuse she could think of. In reality, she’d planned on skipping both, but she couldn’t exactly tell him that. The last thing she needed was for him to know how much of a slacker she actually was. “You’ve been missing more meetings than I have.”

He squinted at her suspiciously, and she was already trying to come up with a new excuse when he said something that completely threw her off anything she thought might happen. “Minako-kun, have you been crying?”

“What?” Minako’s heart stopped. She’d finally admitted to herself about an hour ago that her best (and only) friend didn’t like her anymore, but she’d been very careful to pull herself back together and fix her make-up in the bathroom afterwards. How badly had she fucked it up if he could still tell? “No, I just... What? What do you mean? I’m fine.”

Hidetoshi’s expression made it clear that he didn’t believe her, and she couldn’t blame him. Even by her standards, that was a pretty shitty lie. “Your eyes are bloodshot. Did something happen? If someone has been harassing you-”

“No no no no!” Cutting Hidetoshi off before he could start another witch hunt, Minako shook her head vigorously. “I was just- I watched a really sad movie last night and I ended up thinking about it again today. You know how I am.” She rolled her eyes, a joke at her own expense. “Bleeding heart Minako!”

There was a long, heavy moment of him just staring at her, like he was trying to peel her apart with his eyes. Minako was only seconds away from cracking when he broke eye contact again, “...alright. Help me up.” She stood up to give him a hand, and took a step away to get back out of his personal space. “I need to go fill out a report. Regardless of what else that punk is or isn’t guilty of, attacking another student isn’t something that can go unpunished.”

“Of course. Do you need me to come with you?” Immediately, Minako winced internally. So much for the Go Home Club. Well, it wasn’t like she _couldn’t_ offer, even the most insistent of rubberneckers had already started to wander off, and without another witness, it’d just be his word against the punk’s. Maybe even worse if he could get one of his friends to voice for him.

“I’ll put your name down as one, but paperwork tends to be a one-person job.” Hidetoshi’s expression as he answered was inscrutable, if perhaps judgmental. It _was_ a pretty stupid question, though. “You should get home. If you leave now, you should be able to beat the rush hour crowd.”

“I-...” He was trying to get rid of her. “That’s a good point! Guess I better get going, then.” Minako swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’ll see you Friday!”

She turned and fled before he had a chance to respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back! That's right, it's MamaHen, with more rarepair content that literally only I care about!
> 
> Skipped Rank 3 for the same reason I skipped Rank 1. We're getting pretty close to when things really start to go off the rails, and I've got even less patience for box-checking then I did when I was updating my fics regularly.


	4. Mediation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why doesn't anyone ever listen when Hidetoshi talks to them?
> 
> A merging of the events of Ranks 5 and 6.

Without Minako there to keep everyone on-track, Student Council had once again devolved into pointless bickering. It was a miracle any of them ever got anything done before that little redhead joined. This time, Hidetoshi found himself right in the middle of the squabble. “How many times do I have to explain this? It’s like I’m talking to a moron!”

 _”Why are you accusing **me?** ”_ Shiraishi was fixing him with a glare that would peel paint. Of course that’s what she would think he was saying. _“The butts were found in the **boys’** bathroom, remember?”_

”Hey, what’s going on?”

“I’m not- I’m asking what proof you have that the butts weren’t put in there by a girl!” All Shiraishi had to do was stop arguing for a minute, and she’d understand what he was saying. “Just give me one good reason!”

”Both of you, can we please-”

_”There’s just no reasoning with you!”_ Shiraishi threw her hands in the air and Hidetoshi felt his anger twist. _”I’m the vice-president, I wouldn’t be caught dead smoking! Especially not in the **BOYS’ BATHROOM!”**_

”Hey, cut it out, you two!”

She was being deliberately obtuse at this point, she **had** to be. “Mako-senpai, what I’m saying is that we have to consider all possibilities! And if you would-”

 **”I said CUT IT OUT!”** It was a girl’s voice that cut through the air like a blade, cleanly splitting through the bad air between him and Shiraishi, spoken with the kind of strength and authority that most adults couldn’t even manage. When Hidetoshi turned his head towards the voice’s owner, he fully expected to see the President standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, ready to ream into both of them for unprofessional behavior. And his eyes did catch red hair as he turned, but it wasn’t Mitsuru Kirijo’s. “Can we please just take a step back and talk about this?”

\---

“Okay, I think I understand what’s going on.” Minako nodded to herself a few times, hands pressed together with her index fingers pressed to her lips. There were little wrinkles between her eyebrows the way there always were when she was thinking. “Mako-senpai, I understand why you felt attacked. The boys’ bathroom where the butts were found is right across from your homeroom, right?”

_”Yes! But that doesn’t-”_

“Can I finish, please?” Shiraishi closed her mouth, for what felt like the first time since the meeting started. “And Toshi-kun, what you’re saying is that because that bathroom is out of the way, it’d be easy for just about anyone to sneak in there long enough to throw the butts in the trash and then slip back out.”

Finally, someone who understood! “Exactly. Now-”

“Still not done.” Minako didn’t even just sound like an adult, Hidetoshi realized as he, too, shut his mouth. When Mitsuru spoke, she did so like a president, someone who walked into a room and knew that everyone inside of it looked to her. Minako wasn’t like that. When she spoke, she did so like a commander keeping her soldiers in line. It was entirely at odds with her otherwise gentle, cheerful demeanor, especially given how effective it was. “By that same token, though, Toshi-kun, work backwards from that. It’s so out of the way, where was the person smoking before that would make that corner bathroom the most convenient place to hide evidence?”

“That’s...” A decent point, but everyone had pockets. Especially with the new uniform policy, it would be easy to hide a few butts in one for long enough to-

“And given that we must know they’re onto them, don’t you think that they’d start hiding them in other places, too, in order to throw us off the scent?”

Oh.

_Oh._

“So, while I agree with you that we need to reconsider certain possibilities, the question isn’t who could get to that restroom, but who could stay there, and why they wouldn’t start going somewhere else to smoke instead.” Minako winced, making a strange expression. “Which doooooes, unfortunately... put every single member of class 2-E back on the suspect list.”

 _”Then you **are** taking his side! I knew it!”_ Shiraishi pushed past the both of them to storm out of the room, slamming the door behind her hard enough that it bounced in the track and slid half-open again. _”Don’t know why I expected anything else from his **girlfriend.**_

With the previously defused awkwardness suddenly at its peak, the rest of the Council all made their excuses and scurried out. In a few moments, only the two of them were left, Hidetoshi with his hands in his pockets, and Minako frowning out at where Shiraishi had left. “She seems stressed out.”

\---

“What I don’t understand is why you work so hard to make everyone else get along.” With everyone else gone, it was just the two of them left to clean up the room. Minako, who had been late because of a poorly-timed restroom trip, had volunteered to stay, despite his insistence that she go get some rest. She was looking more and more tired recently.

“I guess I’m just trying to be helpful?” Chewing her lip, Minako shrugged, then looked back up at him. Her eyes were bright red, and there was an intensity to the color that always threw him off. Usually, she wore colored contacts that made them more normal, but she’d been forgoing them recently. Just one more sign that something was going on with her. “Even if it doesn’t amount to much in the long run, if people stop fighting for a few minutes because of me, then I did something at least a little worthwhile that day, right?”

“You’re a very sincere person, Minako-kun.” She smiled and bowed low at the compliment, and Hidetoshi pretended to not notice the white peeking out of her roots. “But that isn’t necessarily a good thing.”

“What do you mean, Toshi-kun?” Pushing the last desk into place, Minako turned and hopped up to sit directly on it. Hidetoshi cleared his throat, and she realized her mistake, popping back up to her feet with a little apology. “Sorry, sorry. But… isn’t being sincere good? Would you rather I be dishonest?”

Bile rolled in Hidetoshi’s throat, and he had to swallow a few times to get it all down. “A man once told me that without position, honor, or education, the only thing a man has left is sincerity.  
Do you know what happened to that man?”

Minako shook her head, though from her expression, it seemed as though she knew it wasn’t something good. “What happened?”

“He was used as a scapegoat. While gathering information for a story, a TV anchorwoman was injured on the job. The executives for the TV station called it an ‘unfortunate accident.’” Hidetoshi made air quotes with his fingers, and Minako winced. She was getting better at reading between the lines. “But when a magazine learned they were hiding something, the execs pointed the finger at the script writer. They said it was the writer who had concealed the truth. That man is currently serving time for perjury.”

“What? That’s awful!” Pressing her hands to her mouth, Minako looked at him with what could only be pity. “And completely nonsensical! What would the script writer even have to do with it?”

“It didn’t matter. He’d trusted the wrong people, they needed a patsy, and he didn’t have the money or connections to fight back. That’s what his sincerity got him, and I learned from him. In this world, the strong prey upon the weak.” Hidetoshi turned, leaning out the window with his hands on the sill. He needed some air, talking about that always made it hard for him to breathe. “Some day, I’m going to make a corporation where everyone is treated fairly. But to do that, I need enough power to make my vision a reality.”

“I didn’t take you as the ambitious dreamer type, Toshi-kun.” A giggle followed her words, and Hidetoshi turned to look over his shoulder at her. Her expression had completely changed. “I always thought you were aiming for a government position, or maybe criminal justice.”

“...that man’s been blackballed by the industry he spent his life working in. Even once he gets out, he’s going to be left scraping by on whatever jobs will take him. When I have my own corporation, I can give him back the career he deserves.”

“Well, if you’re as stubborn about that as you are about everything, I have no doubt that you’ll be able to get there some day.” Hidetoshi felt something in his chest swell as he heard those words, and he had to turn his face away to stare back out the window again.

“You should go get some rest, Minako-kun. I’ll finish up here.”

“I- um… yeah. Okay. Sorry. I’ll just- I’ll just go.” The door opened behind him as she moved to leave. ”Sorry…”

Wait. 

‘Sorry’? 

“Minako-kun, what are you apologizing for?” But by the time he turned to look, she was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters on one day. I'm on a roll!
> 
> We're getting close to the part where this stops just being a novelization of the social link. GET HYPE FOR ANGST!


End file.
